German discounter Lidl has overtaken Waitrose as the seventh largest supermarket in the UK as its value offering continues to win over more and more customers.
Lidl increased its market share to a record 5.2% in the twelve weeks ended August 13, according to the latest Kantar Worldpanel data.
10mln households have visited Lidl in the last three months
During the three month period, Lidl saw sales rise by 18.9% compared to the same period of 2016, helped by rising average basket sizes.
“Ten million households visited the retailer’s expanding network of stores during the past 12 weeks, with alcohol and fresh produce performing particularly well,” said Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight Fraser McKevitt.
Fellow discounter Aldi also enjoyed strong trading over the three months. It grew sales by 17.2% and attracted 1.1mln more shoppers than in the same period last year as it consolidated fifth spot.
Big Four see sales rise too
The big boys were also getting in on the act, with Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO), J Sainsbury plc (LON:SBRY), WM Morrisons Supermarkets PLC (LON:MRW) and Asda all growing sales for the fifth consecutive period despite the recent wet weather.
Tesco saw sales rise by 3% in the 12 weeks, while Morrisons notched up its nine consecutive period of growth as it increased sales by 2.6%.
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Sainsbury’s sales rose by 2% while Asda continued to bounce back from a difficult couple of years with sales growth of 1.4% during the latest quarter.
“This welcome period of sustained growth hasn’t been enough to entirely offset pressure from the discounters: the big four now account for just 69.3% of the UK grocery market – down from 76.3% five years ago – and that looks set to fall further in the coming months,” said McKevitt.
Wet weather costs supermarkets £8mln in burger sales
Overall, UK supermarkets saw sales rise by 4% year-on-year, although the poor weather did hit sales of a couple of summer staples pretty hard.
Ice cream sales fell by 9% in the period, while supermarkets lost out on a whopping £8mln as burger sales fell by a quarter as rain dampened any appetite for a summer barbeque.
Sausages on the other hand managed to escape the axe, with shoppers adding more ‘posh’ bangers to their baskets.
Annual grocery bill up by £138
Food inflation continues to hit the pockets of consumers with like-for-like food inflation up to 3.3% from 3.2% last time around.
“At the current rate, price increases could add a further £138 to the average household’s annual grocery bill, with the price of butter and fish most affected.”
Tesco shares gained 3.6% to 183.3p on the back of the data, Morrisons was up 1.7% to 248.7p, but Asda dipped 0.5% to 236.4p.
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